(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic pillow. In particular, the present invention relates to an electronic pillow including active noise control, acoustic echo cancellation, and recording and monitoring devices.
(2) Description of Related Art
Snoring is an acoustic phenomenon generated by vibrating tissue structures due to obstruction in the upper airway during sleep, and is a prominent problem in modern society. The U.S. National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research estimates that 74 million Americans snore every night, and 38% of Americans who are disturbed by snoring, suffer from daytime fatigue. The annoying intermittent nature of snoring disrupts the sleep of the snorer's bed partner, causing stress and social nuisance. The sleep disruption has been linked to excessive daytime sleepiness of the snorer and his/her bed partner. This can result in loss of productivity in the work environment and lead to occupational accidents, or even reduce one's ability to safely operate a car.
With ever-increasing air and ground traffic noise pollution, reducing noise continues to be a challenge for communities to maintain and increase the quality of life. The growth of high-density housing increases the exposure of populations to traffic noise sources, and the cost constraints have resulted in a tendency to use lighter materials for automobile and building, which results in an increase in environmental noise. There is a lack of technique for effective design for reducing indoor noise pollution in urban areas.
For low-frequency snoring/environmental noise, passive methods such as earmuffs or earplugs are either ineffective or uncomfortable to wear during sleep. Several noise cancellation methods have been developed to reduce the noise of snoring utilizing active noise control (ANC). These ANC systems are based on the principle of superposition to attenuate low-frequency primary (unwanted) noise using secondary anti-noise of the same magnitude but opposite phase. By ANC, the anti-noise and the unwanted noise are both canceled out. Since the characteristic of the noise source and the environment are time varying, most practical ANC systems are adaptive in nature. Acoustic ANC finds numerous applications in reducing low-frequency noises without the change of existing installation and configuration in rooms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,996 to Enzmann, et al. discloses a system for canceling involuntary noises from the airway of a human being, such as snoring. Loudspeakers are mounted on the headboard of a bed to provide noise cancellation, and a microphone is mounted in close proximity to the snorer's head to detect noises from the snorer. The non-snoring sleeper must wear error microphones near their ear in the form of a patch. It is both uncomfortable and inconvenient for the non-snoring sleeper to wear these microphones while sleeping. Furthermore, this design requires that a bed have a headboard, an added expense for users. Also, the distance of the loudspeakers from the non-snoring sleeper requires a greater amount of noise cancellation, i.e. the noises produced by the loudspeakers must be loud enough to reach the sleeper on the bed. This also results in higher volume of acoustic feedback from the loudspeakers to the reference microphone. It would be advantageous to reduce the volume of required canceling noise by placing the loudspeakers close to the non-snoring sleeper.
Kuo, et al. (IEEE Int. Conf. on Control Applications, October 2007, pp. 1342-1346) and Chakravarthy, et al. (Proc. IEEE ICASSP, May 2006, pp. 305-308) both disclose a system to reduce the snoring noise level at the snorer's bed partner's head location based on ANC techniques. The loudspeakers and error microphones are mounted on the headboard of the bed, thus eliminating the requirement of the sleeper to wear microphones. However, again this system requires that the bed have a headboard, and this system requires actual modification of the headboard with added installation costs. This can also be disadvantageous because not all headboards may be easily modified. Also, once mounted, the system does not look aesthetically pleasing and can even be scary for someone trying to sleep surrounded by all of the equipment. In addition, this also results in higher volume of acoustic feedback from the loudspeakers to the reference microphone.
Therefore, there is a need for a system for reducing snoring noises that is aesthetically pleasing, is convenient and moveable for the user, and does not require excessive noise to accomplish the noise abatement.
Speakerphones and hands-free phones have become important equipment for providing the convenience of hands-free communication, especially for handicapped individuals or patients in hospital beds who may not be able to operate a phone or hold a phone up to their ear. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a hands-free communications device for use when lying in bed or sitting in a chair.
Many people with sleeping disorders go to a sleep lab to be diagnosed with a particular disorder so that they can seek treatment. Many times being in a different environment than one's own home can disrupt sleep. It would be advantageous to provide non-invasive detection of sleep disorders wherein that detection can occur in one's own home.